By Colin Moore, Chief Executive of Redcar & Cleveland Council and John Wilson, Head of Salford Business School.

Since its election in May 1997, the Labour Government in the United Kingdom has prioritized the need to improve public services through modernization. In doing so, Tony Blair in particular has, over time, emphasised the need for leadership in achieving modernization and performance improvement. This report considers the issues of leadership, modernization and performance improvement in local government and focuses on a case study, Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council.

The authors provide some important lessons for local government. They criticise the 2006 local government white paper requiring a single, messianic figure as leader. Rather, leadership should be suffused through the whole organization—unless one leader creates other leaders an organization is unlikely to succeed.